Devolved nations dismiss withdrawal bill rewrite

David Lidington said that the proposals would mean “a very big change to the EU withdrawal bill”JACK TAYLOR/GETTY IMAGES

An offer by the UK government to rewrite a flagship Brexit bill to address the concerns of the devolved administrations has been dismissed by the Scottish and Welsh governments.

David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, said that the government had made a “considerable offer” to the devolved administrations with a commitment to return the vast majority of powers over devolved areas to Holyrood and Cardiff after Brexit.

However, Mike Russell, Scotland’s Brexit minister, accused the Tory government of trying to “unilaterally rewrite the devolution settlement”.

Carwyn Jones, Wales’s first minister, said that further progress was needed that “goes beyond warm words” because the version of the legislation at present was an unacceptable attack on devolution.

Mr Lidington said that the UK government’s proposals would mean…

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